We
are thrilled to re-introduce the Community Gateway Program!
Previously, the Community Gateway program helped bring new users to
Second Life, by enabling Second Life communities to attract, register,
an on-board new Residents. The program was shelved in 2010 as resources
were reprioritized, and now we're excited to reintroduce the Community
Gateway program along with some improvements that will make it even more
valuable to Second Life. We recognize the benefit of having Resident
supported tutorial areas and have been working with several communities
while fine tuning the new program over the last year.

This
powerful new tool will allow you to register new users right from your
own community website and add them automatically to your group, thus
helping your community to grow!

The blog post described the program as allowing communities to "create a new user experience and attract residents" to the community, help new residents into beginning their Second Life experience, guide new residents in the "creation of their new avatar personas," and help with new user retention. Of the last detail, Second Life is described as having a very low new user retention. Increasing it would be a step in halting and reversing it's overall long slow decline in numbers.Details about the program, including how to apply, are here in the official Second Life Wiki.